Tony Blair announced his resignation as Labour leader today among the people
who first sent him to Westminster almost a quarter of a century ago and
mounted a passionate, personal defence of his record during a decade in
Downing Street.
In an emotional speech to activists at the Trimdon Labour Club in his
Sedgefield constituency - where he launched his own Labour leadership
campaign 13 years ago and celebrated his three general election victories -
Mr Blair said that he would formally tender his resignation as Prime
Minister to the Queen on June 27.
That timetable sets in motion a six-week contest for the Labour leadership -
although few believe that it will be anything other than a long coronation
procession for Gordon Brown, Mr Blair's long-time partner in the 'new Labour
project' and his Chancellor since 1997.
The Chancellor was due to find out this afternoon if either John McDonnell or
Michael Meacher had raised the necessary 45 nominations from MPs, but the
two men said today that they would not announce until Monday which would
stand.
This afternoon, John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, also resigned as deputy
leader of the party, setting off a rather more real battle to be Mr Brown's
second-in-command. Two candidates, Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland
Secretary and Harriet Harman, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, said that
they had enough nominations to join the contest.
Four others are still in the running: Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary,
Hazel Blears, Labour Party Chairman, Hilary Benn, International Development
Secretary, and John Cruddas, a backbencher.
Mr Blair is expected to endorse Mr Brown tomorrow as he sets off on a farewell
tour that will take him to Paris, Washington and Africa. Today, in front of
his own family and a crowd of adoring supporters, he concentrated on his own
achievements, claiming to have changed the face of modern Britain since his
first landslide election win.
Whereas ten years ago, Britain had been a "strangely old-fashioned country",
it was now one that was "comfortable in the 21st century, at home in
its own skin". "Britain is not a follower today. It is a leader,"
Mr Blair said.
But, while admitting that other aspects of his premiership - such as the
decision to join the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 - remained "bitterly
controversial", Mr Blair said: "Hand on heart, I did what I
thought was right."
The most successful leader in Labour history first won the Sedgefield seat as
a fresh-faced 30-year-old in 1983 and remains massively popular in the
County Durham constituency. Instead of tears, however, there somewhat of a
party atmosphere at the Trimdon Club, with party activists dancing around to
Lou Bega's Mambo No 5 as they waited impatiently for their MP to appear this
morning.
After paying tribute to his agent, John Burton, and to his wife, Cherie, and
four children, Mr Blair, 54, said: "I have come back here to
Sedgefield, to my constituency, where my political journey began and where
it’s fitting that it should end."
He added: "I’ve been Prime Minister of this country for just over ten
years. I think that’s long enough, not only for me, but also for the country
and sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down."
In a wide-ranging speech, punctuated repeatedly by burst of applause, Mr Blair
explained his own political development - he was born a decade after the
Second World War and came to political maturity as the Cold War was coming
to an end, at a time of political, economic and technological revolution.
At that time, he said, Britain was essentially a divided nation, where people
were either liberal or conservative, where they backed either the power of
the state or the power of the individual, where spending was "either
the answer or the problem".
He then challenged his audience to think back - "no, really, think back"
- to 1997 and try to remember the last time that they had to spend a year on
a hospital waiting list or heard of a pensioner freezing to death because
they could not meet their energy bill.
On his foreign policy record, Mr Blair was less defiant, although he said it
had been right, after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, to "stand
shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally, and I did so out of belief".
"And so Afghanistan, and then Iraq - the latter bitterly controversial,"
he added. "And removing Saddam and his sons from power, as with
removing the Taleban, was over with relative ease.
"But the blowback since, with global terrorism and those elements that
support it, has been fierce and unrelenting and costly and for many it
simply isn’t and can’t be worth it. For me, I think we must see it through."
He added: "I may have been wrong. That’s your call. But believe one thing
if nothing else, I did what I thought was right for my country."
Above the applause, the sounds of a small anti-war protest outside the
clubhouse could not be heard.
Dressed in an orange boiler suit and surrounded by police as he knelt on the
ground, Abubaker Deghayes, whose brother Omar was taken five years ago from
Lahore, Pakistan, shouted through a megaphone: "The police are
surrounding the building, come out with your hands up, you are wanted for
war crimes."
Mr Burton said today that he expected Mr Blair to remain as MP for Sedgefield
for the rest of the Parliament unless a major international post was offered
to him.
Mr Blair's farewell tour will see him make at least five overseas trips before
his departure from Downing Street - suggesting that he is keen on some kind
of international role.
The tour starts tomorrow with a visit to Paris and a meeting with Nicolas
Sarkozy, the rightwinger elected president at the weekend on a platform of
economic deregulation and reform. He is likely to visit Washington next week
for a final meeting with President Bush - his strongest international ally -
and will also visit Germany and Brussels.
Many of the tributes to Mr Blair after his resignation came from abroad, too.
Mr Bush described the Prime Minister as “a political figure who is capable
of thinking over the horizon", adding: "When Tony Blair tells you
something as we say in Texas, you can take it to the bank."
Closer to home, Mr Blair was widely praised in Ireland after this week's
restoration of power-sharing in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland and Wales
for having introduced devolved government there. In Downing Street,
meanwhile, Mr Brown said the achievements of his political partner were "unique,
unprecedented and enduring".
“Many people will remember how he led the country after July 7, how he
responded for the whole world after September 11 in America, how he
responded to the tragic death of Princess Diana," said the Chancellor.
“But over 10 years his enduring legacy will also be that he built better
public services, a strong economy, that Britain’s reputation in the world is
stronger than ever before and that at all times he tried to do the right
thing.”
Predictably, his critics focused on the conflict in Iraq. George Galloway, the
Respect MP, said that he "would be pitiable, if he were not the author
of a war crime".
David Cameron, the Tory leader, delivered his verdict in a typical chatty
posting on his webcameron.org video website, filmed on the street in
Birmingham.
"Obviously some good things have happened in the last ten years, not
least the conclusion of the peace process in Northern Ireland just a few
days ago," Mr Cameron said. "But when the Prime Minister spoke of
some hopes being disappointed, that was putting it mildly: I think many
people will look back on the last ten years of dashed hopes and big
disappointments - and so little delivered."
Back in Sedgefield, Mr Blair's loyal supporters were having none of it. "He’s
brilliant. It’s been brilliant for us," said Lena Devine, 72,
fishing a photograph out of her handbag of him eating a pie at the Black
Bull pub in 1984. "He’ll go out with his head held high. You haven’t
heard the last of Tony Blair."
